I Know Dino: The Big Dinosaur Podcast

First diplodocoid ever found in East Asia. When combining bones from several individuals, nearly the entire skeleton is known (in white). Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05128-1 on 7/31/2018

Here’s what came out this week in dinosaur news:

The first ever diplodcoid from East Asia was discovered, Lingwulong shenqi, and it’s also incredibly old for an advanced sauropod source

The new Deep Time exhibit coming to the Smithsonian in 2019 will feature a T. rex biting the frill of a Triceratopssource

Dickinson Dinosaur Museum in North Dakota has a new claws exhibit to show the correlation between dinosaurs and modern birds source

The Dinosaur Room in Rio’s National Museum recently reopened after a renovation source

In the month of August, if you donate to certain Goodwills, you can get free kids tickets to Dinosaur World source

A 16-year-old in the UK built a replica Allosaurus from scrap metal source

In Las Vegas a man setup projectors outside his daughter’s window to simulate dinosaurs looking at her source

A real estate agent made a listing go viral using an inflatable T. rex costume source

Robert Kirkman, who created the comic The Walking Dead, is now working on a new project called Super Dinosaur source

Our five-year-old listner Remy was featured in a University of Alberta article after choosing Alberta as his birthday destination—for the dinosaurs of course source

The dinosaur of the day: Ampelosaurus

Titanosaur that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now France

Bonebed was found in 1989 (found ribs, vertebrae, limb bones, a tooth, and four osteoderms, different shapes and sizes). Fossils were from several individuals

Named in 1995 by Jean Le Loeuff

One of the best known dinosaurs from France

One of the most completely known titanosaurs from Europe

About 52 ft (16 m) long and about 17,600 lb (8,000 kg)

Neck was short in proportion to is body

Seems to have grown gradually, based on its bone histology (no signs of growth lines, though other titanosaurs also don’t have these growth lines)

Herbivorous

Had osteoderms/armor that were 9.8-11 in (25-28 cm) long

Osteoderms were plate, bulb, and spine-shaped

Inner ear had a more basal form (compared to Giraffititan), which may have restricted its movements, including head turning

More than 500 bones have been found since 1989 (including parts of a skull and jaw bone), though the original description was only about a tooth and some vertebrae

Jean Le Loueff wrote a complete description in 2005

Type species is Ampelosaurus atacis

Name means “vineyard lizard”, named after the Blanquette de Limoux vineyard, located near where Ampelosaurus was found

Species name means “Aude river”, site was Campagne-sur-Aude)

Smaller than its ancestors, so Coria and others said in 2005 they considered it to be a dwarf sauropod

Lived in an ancient floodplain that had lots of river channels

Other animals that lived at the same time and place included turtles, fish, crocodiles, birds, theropods, ankylosaurs, and the ornithopod Rhabodon

Fun Fact:

Every species of dinosaur (or other animal/plant) is defined by a single individual called the holotype. All future animals must be compared to that type specimen to be categorized.

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Sauropodiforme that lived in the Triassic/Jurassic (boundary) in what is now South Africa (Elliot Formation)

Named in 2003 by Adam Yates (co-authored by James Kitching)

Type species (and only species) is Antetonitrus ingenipes

Name means “Before the thunder”, which refers to it existing before Brontosaurus and other known sauropods

Species name means “massive foot”

Fossils were found in 1981 by Kitching, and they were stored at the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

They were originally labeled as Euskelosaurus, until Yates suggested they were a separate taxon

The holotype consists of vertebrae and bones from the forelimb and hind limb

Five limb bones from a smaller specimen were also referred to Antetonitrus

Holotype was about 26-33 ft (8-10 m) long, but the neural arches of the vertebrae were not fused with the centra, so it may not have been fully grown

Had a long neck

Skull is not known

Mostly quadrupedal herbivore, but had primitive adaptations to use forelimbs for grasping, in addition to supporting its weight

Had forelimbs that were longer than its hindlimbs

The first digit of its hand (the “thumb” or pollex”) were still flexible and capable of grasping (later sauropods had large, thick wrist bones, and their hands were locked in a way to support its weight full time)

Antetonitrus did have broader, thicker wrist bones, so it shows an adaptation

Feet show the beginning of developing to support great weight

Also the first toe on its foot had a claw, though it wasn’t sickle shaped like in later sauropods

Could be a transitional link between bipedal sauropodomorphs and quadrupedal sauropods

Not necessarily a direct ancestor to sauropods however. Scientists have classified it as a sauropodiforme (an animal that has features related to the origin of sauropods)

Closely resembles Blikanasaurus and Lessemsaurus (but both of those are poorly known)

Fun Fact:

Back in 2007 the lead author on the crustaceans-in-poo article, Karen Chin, also reported on dinosaurs eating wood. That time while studying the Two Medicine formation and coprolite believed to be from Maiasaura.

~74–80MYA formation

Identified as coprolite by dung beetle burrows

Cited lack of twigs as intentionally eating wood

Not accidental while eating leaves

Conifer wood accounted for 13%–85% of each coprolite

This wood was also decaying (fungus), possibly meaning that the fungus broke down the wood into something bioavailable

Even hadrosaurs with their grinding teeth and massive stomachs couldn’t get much nutritional value from wood

Cited this as a potentially useful resource given the overall lack of grasses and other angiosperms that modern herbivores prefer